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Steganography and Steganalysis

J.R. Krenn
January 2004

What is steganography?
Steganography, coming from the Greek words stegos, meaning roof or covered and
graphia which means writing, is the art and science of hiding the fact that commu-
nication is taking place. Using steganography, you can embed a secret message inside a
piece of unsuspicious information and send it without anyone knowing of the existence
of the secret message.
Steganography and cryptography are closely related. Cryptography scrambles mes-
sages so they cannot be understood. Steganography on the other hand, will hide the
message so there is no knowledge of the existence of the message in the first place. In
some situations, sending an encrypted message will arouse suspicion while an ”invisible”
message wil not do so. Both sciences can be combined to produce better protection of
the message. In this case, when the steganography fails and the message can be detected,
it is still of no use as it is encrypted using cryptography techniques.
Therefore, the principle defined once by Kerckhoffs for cryptography, also stands for
steganography: the quality of a cryptographic system should only depend on a small
part of information, namely the secret key. The same is valid for good steganographic
systems: knowledge of the system that is used, should not give any information about the
existence of hidden messages. Finding a message should only be possible with knowledge
of the key that is required to uncover it.

New technology?
Steganographic techniques have been used for centuries. The first known application
dates back to the ancient Greek times, when messengers tattoed messages on their shaved
heads and then let their hair grow so the message remained unseen. A different method
from that time used wax tables as a cover source. Text was written on the underlying
wood and the message was covered with a new wax layer. The tablets appeared to be
blank so they passed inspection without question.

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In the 20th century, invisible inks where a widely used technique. In the second world
war, people used milk, vinegar, fruit juices and urine to write secret messages. When
heated, these fluids become darker and the message could be read.
Even later, the Germans developed a technique called the microdot. Microdots are
photographs with the size of a printed period but have the clarity of a standard type-
written page. The microdots where then printed in a letter or on an enveloppe and being
so small, they could be sent unnoticed.
Recently, the United States government claimed that Osama Bin Laden and the
al-Qaeda organization use steganography to send messages through websites and news-
groups. However, until now, no substantial evidence supporting this claim has been
found, so either al-Qaeda has used or created real good steganographic algorithms, or
the claim is probably false.
Steganographic techniques have been used with success for centuries already. How-
ever, since secret information usually has a value to the ones who are not allowed to
know it, there will be people or organisations who will try to decode encrypted infor-
mation or find information that is hidden from them. Governments want to know what
civilians or other governments are doing, companies want to be sure that trade secrets
will not be sold to competitors and most persons are naturally curious. Many different
motives exist to detect the use of steganography, so techniques to do so continue to be
developed while the hiding algorithms become more advanced.

Uses of steganography
With steganography you can send messages without anyone having knowledge of the
existence of the communication. There are many countries where it is not possible to
speak as freely as it is in some more democratic countries. Steganography can be a
solution which makes it possible to send news and information without being censored
and without the fear of the messages being intercepted and traced back to you.
While sending messages can be useful, it is also possible to simply use steganogra-
phy to store information on a location. For example, several information sources like
your private banking information, some military secrets and your mothers special pan-
cake recipe, can be stored in a cover source. When you are required to unhide the
secret information in your cover source, you can easily reveal your banking data and
the recipe and it will be impossible to prove the existence of the military secrets in-
side. Steganography can offer denieable storage of information. The Rubberhose project
(http://www.rubberhose.org) offers an implementation of this principle.
Because you can hide information without the cover source changing, steganography
can also be used to implement watermarking. Although the concept of watermarking
is not neccessarily steganography, there are several steganographic techniques that are
being used to store watermarks in data. The main difference is on intent, while the
purpose of steganography is hiding information, watermarking is merely extending the
cover source with extra information. Since people will not accept noticeable changes in
images, audio or video files because of a watermark, steganographic methods can be
used to hide this.

Implementing steganography
Secrets can be hidden inside all sorts of cover information: text, images, audio, video
and more. Most steganographic utilities nowadays, hide information inside images, as
this is relatively easy to implement. However, there are tools available to store secrets
inside almost any type of cover source. It is also possible to hide information inside texts,
sounds and video films for example. The most important property of a cover source is the
amount of data that can be stored inside it, without changing the noticeable properties
of the cover. When an image is distorted or a piece of music sounds different than the
original, the cover source will be suspicious and may be checked more thoroughly.

Hiding a message inside a text

Since everyone can read, encoding text in neutral sentences is doubtfully effective. But
taking the first letter of each word of the previous sentence, you will see that it is
possible and not very difficult. Hiding information in plain text can be done in many
different ways. The first-letter algorithm used here is not very secure, as knowledge of
the system that is used, automatically gives you the secret. This is a disadvantage that
many techniques of hiding secrets inside plain text have in common.
Many techniques involve the modification of the layout of a text, rules like using
every n-th character or the altering of the amount of whitespace after lines or between
words. The last technique was successfully used in practice and even after a text has been
printed and copied on paper for ten times, the secret message could still be retrieved.
Another possible way of storing a secret inside a text is using a publicly available
cover source, a book or a newspaper, and using a code which consists for example of
a combination of a page number, a line number and a character number. This way, no
information stored inside the cover source will lead to the hidden message. Discovering
it, relies solely on gaining knowledge of the secret key.

Images

Hiding information inside images is a popular technique nowadays. An image with a


secret message inside can easily be spread over the world wide web or in newsgroups.
The use of steganography in newsgroups has been researched by German steganographic
expert Niels Provos, who created a scanning cluster which detects the presence of hidden
messages inside images that were posted on the net. However, after checking one million
images, no hidden messages were found, so the practical use of steganography still seems
to be limited.
To hide a message inside an image without changing its visible properties, the cover
source can be altered in ”noisy” areas with many color variations, so less attention will be
drawn to the modifications. The most common methods to make these alterations involve
the usage of the least-significant bit or LSB, masking, filtering and transformations
on the cover image. These techniques can be used with varying degrees of success on
different types of image files.

Least-significant bit modifications


The most widely used technique to hide data, is the usage of the LSB. Although there
are several disadvantages to this approach, the relative easiness to implement it, makes
it a popular method. To hide a secret message inside a image, a proper cover image is
needed. Because this method uses bits of each pixel in the image, it is neccessary to
use a lossless compression format, otherwise the hidden information will get lost in the
transformations of a lossy compression algorithm.
When using a 24 bit color image, a bit of each of the red, green and blue color com-
ponents can be used, so a total of 3 bits can be stored in each pixel. Thus, a 800 × 600
pixel image can contain a total amount of 1.440.000 bits (180.000 bytes) of secret data.
For example, the following grid can be considered as 3 pixels of a 24 bit color image,
using 9 bytes of memory:

(00100111 11101001 11001000)


(00100111 11001000 11101001)
(11001000 00100111 11101001)
When the character A, which binary value equals 10000001, is inserted, the following
grid results:

(00100111 11101000 11001000)


(00100110 11001000 11101000)
(11001000 00100111 11101001)
In this case, only three bits needed to be changed to insert the character succesfully.
On average, only half of the bits in an image will need to be modified to hide a secret
message using the maximal cover size. The resulting changes that are made to the least-
significant bits are too small to be recognised by the human eye, so the message is
effectively hidden.
While using a 24 bit image gives a relatively large amount of space to hide messages,
it is also possible to use a 8 bit image as a cover source. Because of the smaller space
and different properties, 8 bit images require a more careful approach. Where 24 bit
images use three bytes to represent a pixel, an 8 bit image uses only one. Changing the
LSB of that byte will result in a visible change of color, as another color in the available
palette will be displayed. Therefore, the cover image needs to be selected more carefully
and preferably be in grayscale, as the human eye will not detect the difference between
different gray values as easy as with different colors.
Disadvantages of using LSB alteration, are mainly in the fact that it requires a
fairly large cover image to create a usable amount of hiding space. Even nowaways,
uncompressed images of 800 x 600 pixels are not often used on the Internet, so using
these might rise suspicion. Another disadvantage will arise when compressing an image
concealing a secret using a lossy compression algorithm. The hidden message will not
survive this operation and is lost after the transformation.

Masking and filtering


Masking and filtering techniques, usually restricted to 24 bits or grayscale images, take
a different approach to hiding a message. These methods are effectively similar to pa-
per watermarks, creating markings in an image. This can be achieved for example by
modifying the luminance of parts of the image. While masking does change the visible
properties of an image, it can be done in such a way that the human eye will not notice
the anomalies.
Since masking uses visible aspects of the image, it is more robust than LSB modi-
fication with respect to compression, cropping and different kinds of image processing.
The information is not hidden at the ”noise” level but is inside the visible part of the
image, which makes it more suitable than LSB modifications in case a lossy compression
algorithm like JPEG is being used.

Transformations
A more complex way of hiding a secret inside an image comes with the use and modifi-
cations of discrete cosine transformations. Discrete cosine transformations (DST)), are
used by the JPEG compression algorithm to transform successive 8 x 8 pixel blocks of
the image, into 64 DCT coefficients each. Each DCT coefficient F (u, v) of an 8 x 8 block
of image pixels f (x, y) is given by:
" 7 7 #
1 XX (2x + 1)uπ (2y + 1)vπ
F (u, v) = C(u)C(v) f (x, y) ∗ cos cos
4 x=0 y=0
16 16

where C(x) = 1/ 2 when x equals 0 and C(x) = 1 otherwise. After calculating the
coefficients, the following quantizing operation is performed:
 
Q F (u, v)
F (u, v) =
Q(u, v)
where Q(u, v) is a 64-element quantization table. A simple pseudo-code algorithm
to hide a message inside a JPEG image could look like this:

Input: message, cover image


Output: steganographic image containing message
while data left to embed do
get next DCT coefficient from cover image
if DCT 6= 0 and DCT 6= 1 then
get next LSB from message
replace DCT LSB with message bit
end if
insert DCT into steganographic image
end while
Although a modification of a single DCT will affect all 64 image pixels, the LSB
of the quantized DCT coefficient can be used to hide information. Lossless compressed
images will be suspectible to visual alterations when the LSB are modified. This is not
the case with the above described method, as it takes place in the frequency domain
inside the image, instead of the spatial domain and therefore there will be no visible
changes to the cover image.

Audio and video

Hiding information inside audio files can be done in several different ways. Using the
least-significant bit is possible, as modifications will usually not create audible changes
to the sounds. Another method involves taking advantage of human limitations. It is
possible to encode messages using frequencies that are inaudible to the human ear. Using
any frequencies above 20.000 Hz, messages can be hidden inside soundfiles and will not
be detected by human checks.
Also, a message can be encoded using musical tones with a substitution scheme.
For example, a F is tone will represent a 0 and a C tone represents a 1. A normal
musical piece can now be composed around the secret message or an existing piece can
be selected together with an encoding scheme that will represent a message.
Video files are generally a collection of images and sounds, so most of the presented
techniques on images and audio can be applied to video files too. The great advantages
of video are the large amount of data that can be hidden inside and the fact that it
is a moving stream of images and sounds. Therefore, any small but otherwise notice-
able disortions, might go by unobserved by humans because of the continous flow of
information.

Detecting steganography
As more and more techniques of hiding information are developed and improved, the
methods of detecting the use of steganography also advance. Most steganographic tech-
niques involve changing properties of the cover source and there are several ways of
detecting these changes.

Text

While information can be hidden inside texts in such a way that the presence of the
message can only be detected with knowledge of the secret key, for example when using
the earlier mentioned method using a publicly available book and a combination of
character positions to hide the message, most of the techniques involve alterations to
the cover source. These modifications can be detected by looking for patterns in texsts
or disturbings thereof, odd use of language and unusual amounts of whitespace.
Images

Although images can be scanned for suspicious properties in a very basic way, detecting
hidden messages usually requires a more technical approach. Changes in size, file format,
last modified timestamp and in the color palette might point out the existence of a
hidden message, but this will not always be the case.
A widely used technique for image scanning involves statistical analysis. Most stegano-
graphic algorithms that work on images, assume that the least-significant bit is more or
less random. This is however, an incorrect assumption. While the LSB might not seem
to be of much importance, applying a filter which only shows the least-significant bits,
will still produce a recognizable image. Since this is the case, it can be concluded that
the LSB are not random at all, but actually contain information about the whole image.
When inserting a hidden message into an image, this property changes. Especially with
encrypted data, which has a very high entropy, the LSB of the cover image will no longer
contain information about the original, but because of the modifications they will now
be more or less random.
With a statistical analysis on the LSB, the difference between random values and
real image values can easily be detected. Using this technique, it is also possible to detect
messages hidden inside JPEG files with the DCT method, since this also involves LSB
modifications, even though these take place in the frequency domain.

Audio and video

The statistical analysis method can be used against audio files too, since the LSB mod-
ification technique can be used on sounds too. Except for this, there are several other
things that can be detected. High, inaudible frequencies can be scanned for information
and odd distortions or patterns in the sounds might point out the existence of a secret
message. Also, differences in pitch, echo or background noise may raise suspicion.
Like implementing steganography using video files as cover sources, the methods of
detecting hidden information are also a combination of techniques used for images and
audio files. However, a different steganographic technique can be used that is especially
effective when used in video films. The usage of special code signs or gestures is very
difficult to detect with a computer system. This method was used in the Vietnam war
so prisoners of war could communicate messages secretly through the video films the
enemy soldiers made to send to the homefront.

Defeating steganograms
While steganograms may not always be successfully detected, there are different ways
of removing hidden messages from possible cover sources. Knowledge or certainty of
the existence of a hidden message is not needed, since messages can even be destroyed
without this. Although there will never be a 100 percent guarantee of success, the number
of possible ways of sending hidden messages can easily be reduced using any combination
of steganographic defeating techniques.
Text

The best way of removing hidden messages from a plain text might be rewriting and
reformulating the contents. Rewriting it using different words and sentence constructions
will most certainly remove all ways of reproducing a hidden message, since it will take
care of almost every possible way data can be stored inside a plain text. The character
position scheme will no longer work because the words have been changed, and the same
is valid for the differentations in whitespacing, since the text will have a new layout.
The only method that will not be covered by this technique is the usage of a publicly
available cover source. Since this source cannot easily be altered, there is no effective
way of stopping this method, except for intercepting the secret key.

Images

Compressing an image using lossy compression will remove messages that are hidden
using the LSB modification technique. This will also happen when the image is resized,
the color palette is modified or the colors themselves are modified. Conversion to a
different image format, which often uses a different type of compression, will also help
in removing hidden messages. And altering the luminiscence for example, will remove
watermarks in the visible part of an image.

Audio and video

Most of the techniques that can be used on images, can also be applied on audio files.
Compressing an audio file with lossy compression will result in loss of the hidden message
as it will change the whole structure of a file. Also, several lossy compression schemes use
the limits of the human ear to their advantage by removing all frequencies that cannot
be heard. This will also remove any frequencies that are used by a steganographic system
which hides information in that part of the spectrum.
Another possible way of removing steganograms is lowering the bitrate of the audio
file. In that case, there will be less available space to store hidden data and therefore,
at least parts of it will get lost.
For video, once more again, the same methods as for images and audio files can be
applied to remove hidden information. To defeat the use of signals or gestures however,
human insight is still neccessary, as computer systems are not yet capable of detecting
this with a reasonable rate of success.

Conclusion
Steganography, especially combined with cryptography, is a powerful tool which enables
people to communicate without possible eavesdroppers even knowing there is a form
of communication in the first place. The methods used in the science of steganography
have advanced a lot over the past centuries, especially with the rise of the computer era.
Although the techniques are still not used very often, the possibilities are endless. Many
different techniques exist and continue to be developed, while the ways of detecting
hidden messages also advance quickly.
Since detection can never give a guarantee of finding all hidden information, it can
be used together with methods of defeating steganography, to minimize the chances of
hidden communication taking place. Even then, perfect steganography, where the secret
key will merely point out parts of a cover source which form the message, will pass
undetected, because the cover source contains no information about the secret message
at all.
In the near future, the most important use of steganographic techniques will probably
lie in the field of digital watermarking. Content providers are eager to protect their
copyrighted works against illegal distribution and digital watermarks provide a way of
tracking the owners of these materials. Although it will not prevent the distribution
itself, it will enable the content provider to start legal actions against the violators of
the copyrights, as they can now be tracked down.
Steganography might also become limited under laws, since governments already
claimed that criminals use these techniques to communicate. More restrictions on the
use of privacy-protecting technologies are not very unlikely, especially in this period of
time with great anxiety of terrorist and other attacks.

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